By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Two parents urged the School Committee to overhaul the district’s Life-Threatening Allergy Management Policy during an April 23 meeting.
Policy JLCF is the School Department’s Life-Threatening Allergy Management Policy. The School Committee adopted the policy in April 2022.
As part of a protocol related to the policy, elementary school students who have life-threatening allergies are required to sit at the same lunch table in order to allow staff members can closely monitor them.
Chestnut Street resident Ashley Staab asked the School Committee and Interim Superintendent Tom Geary to revise Police JLCF.
“The current one-size-fits-all policy is not effectively serving the population it was intended to support,” said Staab. “My specific request is that parents have the ability to opt out of the mandatory restricted seating assignments. The current policy requires any child with an EpiPen to sit at the nut-free table. My son has been sitting there since he entered kindergarten at Summer Street last September even though he is not allergic to nuts or peanuts. In fact, any person sitting at his table could be munching on a sesame cracker and hummus, baring in mind that sesame seeds and chickpeas, the primary ingredient in hummus, are his two main allergens. How is this policy protecting him? The answer is it is not.”
Staab said she and her husband have written formal requests to school officials seeking to remove their son from the table.
“I have provided documentation from allergists and physicians at Boston Children’s Hospital not only approving but encouraging his mainstream seating alongside his peers in the lunchroom,” said Staab. “Our requests for his exemption have been denied due to the policy set forth by the School Committee and the revisions made two years ago. In Massachusetts, there are no state-mandated rules about lunchroom seating, so each school district has the autonomy to write their own set of policies. In the research I have conducted by speaking with other families, educators, administrators and neighboring and surrounding towns, there is no other community that does not respect the parents’ right to choose what they feel is the safest and best option for their children. Reading, North Reading, Wilmington, Woburn, Peabody, Lynn, Middleton, Boxford, Chelsea, Malden, Medford and Andover all have an opt-out parent-choice policy. Why are we any different?”
Staab said she “highly respects” the Administrative Leadership Team (ALT).
“I know their hearts are in the right place and that our children’s safety is a top priority,” said Staab. “I recognize how fortunate I am to send my children off to a place where people love and care for them the way that they do, and I don’t take that for granted. However, there is no one who values their safety and loves them more than I do. Parents’ voices should matter and we should have the final say in what makes sense for our child’s health and safety.”
Staab said the life-threatening allergy protocol has negatively affected her son’s mental health.
“The social and emotional toll that this has taken on my son is disheartening,” said Staab. “When we go around the dinner table at night and talk about our pits and peaks of the day, the pits my 6-year-old should be talking about are tripping over his shoelace at recess or missing a word on a spelling test. It should not consistently be the 20-minute lunchtime that he feels alienated from his friends and peers. I can understand the rationale of keeping children with allergies close by the nurse and the two lunch monitors. However, I know that we can get more creative than isolating students for their differences. It isn’t the answer. We need to create an environment that prioritizes their safety and their social-emotional health. In my opinion, the current model is not supporting either. I urge you to add back in the parents’ right to opt out. I look forward to working collaboratively with the committee, interim superintendent and all necessary decision-makers in order to make it happen.”
School Committee Chair Kate DePrizio said she empathizes with Staab’s concerns.
“I also appreciate how important that down time is at lunch and how much some of our students absolutely need it,” said DePrizio.
DePrizio said the ALT will need to discuss revising the Life-Threatening Allergy Management Policy with school nurses before the school board reviews any changes to Policy JLCF.
“We are going to have to look at legal and medical things before the policy is fully reviewed,” said DePrizio. “As a parent to a parent, I can feel your urgency and I want to resolve it for you as soon as possible. It will still take time because it has to go through this process and we have to do our due diligence to make sure we are doing something that we think is safe for everyone while taking into account individual needs. We have to find a way to balance that and marry that. Those discussions will take time.”
School Committee member Jenny Sheehan agreed.
“We will keep you informed,” said Sheehan. “I know it has been a struggle for you because you had a meeting and then nothing came. Whatever the next step is, we can keep you in the know.”
Staab suggested that school officials hold a forum with allergists to discuss different ideas about revising the life-threatening allergy management policy.
“Allergies are a tricky topic and is sensitive because everybody’s situation is different,” said Staab. “I just encourage and hope that we can come up with a policy that understands each child is different and each circumstance is different.”
Country Club Drive resident Nadine Desiderio also urged school officials to update Policy JLCF.
“I have three children at Huckleberry Hill School,” said Desiderio. “My oldest daughter has severe tree nut allergies. Since she has been at Huckleberry, she has sat at the allergy table. For the past three years, our family has invested a lot of our money and a lot of our time healing her allergies. Since last summer, she has not carried an EpiPen and eats tree nuts consistently.”
Desiderio said her daughter’s physicians at Boston Children’s Hospital wrote a letter to school officials requesting that she be allowed to sit with her peers and not at the allergy table. She said that request was also denied.
“I am disappointed this policy has created more harm for my fourth-grader,” said Desiderio. “Her friends have told her they will come and sit with her, but then they forget or sometimes they want to sit with a group of friends. My daughter is more introverted, and this has become a social-emotional situation for her. She now meets with the adjustment counselor because they feel that if she has more confidence, maybe she will fit in at the allergy table and will talk to the people who are not her friends. I think this has created a worse situation. She just wants to be with her classmates.”
Desiderio also read a letter that her daughter wrote to Huckleberry Hill Principal Melissa Wyland a few weeks ago.
“I do not feel comfortable at the allergy table because of the people I sit with,” Desiderio stated while reading her daughter’s letter. “I feel like I am left out and I can’t be myself. Sometimes I have no one I know to sit with me, and that makes me feel bad about myself. I feel like people stare at me, and I just sit there and eat quietly. I want to sit at my class table because everyone is really nice and I think I would feel more included in conversations. Sometimes people I invite either forget to come or don’t want to sit with me because they want to sit with a group of friends. This sometimes makes me feel lonely or not important. I understand lunch is a short period of time, but it is also one of the only times I can talk to my friends. I spend that time sitting quietly and eating.”
DePrizio said school officials do not want Desiderio’s daughter “feeling that way.”
“That is the last thing we want,” said DePrizio. “We want her feeling confident and good about herself, especially at lunchtime. It seems like such a small period of time, but it is actually so valuable to so many of them for those peer connections.”
DePrizio told Desiderio and Staab that she will keep them posted about any changes to Policy JLCF.
“I don’t anticipate it will be very quick,” said DePrizio. “I think there will be multiple meetings exploring this to make sure that we are doing the right things in all areas.”
School Committee member Jamie Hayman concurred with DePrizio’s viewpoint.
“We are trying to get the least imperfect solution to this,” said Hayman. “I think one of the things we need to do as a committee is putting Policy JLCF, Life-Threatening Allergy Management, on annually for review. The last line of it states it will be reviewed annually and updated as needed.”
School Committee member Jim Dillon said he emphasized with Staab and Desiderio’s concerns about Policy JLCF.
“Having observed school lunches for about 30 years, I know it is an important time for students,” said Dillon. “It’s something we have to take very seriously and look very closely at. We will.”
Geary informed the Villager that the ALT began discussing Policy JLCF on April 24.